On Books:From Dickens to Golf,Science and Ending With East End Crime.....As You Do

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

When I finished my post on The Thirty Nine Steps so excited was I in throwing the theory forward that racist John Buchan is still remembered today because of sex harasser Alfred Hitchcock that I'd forgotten to mention what my next ebook on the Kindle was going to be.

Well in the spirit of the season it's Charles Dickens' A Christmas....no only kidding...been there done that....seen the movie (and the musical as it happens).

It was in fact Martin Chuzzlewit.

I did not unfortunately like it. For me it seemed a lot more meandering than other books of his I've read and yet unlike those other ones it didn't seem to easily to move back into the central plot. Consequently my mind meandered as well. There are books that you persevere with because you feel as a reader you should but the only thing you're looking forward to is the end.

The only interesting thing to me about the novel were those scenes set in America. It made me wonder whether Dickens was the first writer (or the earliest still remembered today) to think that he could get greater American sales by setting part of the story there. Just a thought.

The next ebook turned out to be Arnold Palmer: Reflections On The Game by the aforementioned Arnold and Thomas Hauser. This I bought for free. Now I know why. It was just a few pages. A glorified magazine/newspaper article. Obviously Arnold Palmer had the right to chat about golf more than most people, but none of what I read held any surprise. It was a waste of the nothing I paid for it.

So the ebook I'm now reading is The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy. Gentleman by Lawrence Sterne. It's a classic of British literature and am looking forward to it.

Have also read two library books. This was the first.

The Accidental Scientist - Graeme Donald

As the cover explains it's about the great accidental discoveries in science. In this case it's a book that scientists would buy their non scientist friends ("See? Science can be fun")

The trouble with this and similar type books is that you realise as you're reading it that each chapter would have made a better complete book in it's own right. So what you're reading may not be awful, but it is unsatisfying.

This was the other library book.

David Meikle - Kate Beal Blyth - The Krays The Prison Years

I'm not old enough to remember The Krays in their gangster prime. But growing up in the East End of London (I was born in Forest Gate) I do remember that even in prison for the rest of their lives they still seemed to have this myth surrounding them. Indeed for longevity in the collective East End memory the only other icon I can immediately think of is Bobby Moore.

So a detailed book (based on a TV documentary - not revealed until the end) about this rarely documented period in their lives banged up in prison is a worthwhile addition to the library of stuff written about the Krays. It's also the best book of the four I've chatted about today (yes it was more interesting than Martin Chuzzlewit) but perhaps that's my East End background talking

It's not without problems. For me the biggest was the surprising little time spent to their early prison years. It also made me feel a little sympathetic towards Ronnie Kray, given that he was a diagnosed with severe mental problems including schizophrenia. You wondered what would have happened to them if he hadn't been plagued with these illnesses

Still I "enjoyed" reading it and it's recommended. Won't be able to get new library books until Tuesday so we'll see what they are then.

Until the next time.

How Racist John Buchan Is Remembered Thanks To A Sex Harasser

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

I've finished The Thirty Steps by John Buchan. Having read Prester John was expecting heaps of racism in this book too. So it's a surprise to say that there is no racism in the book.

There is instead anti-Semitism. Mainly in the first chapter. But it's there. All you need to find now is sexism (which I'll come back to in a moment) and homophobia and you'll have a connect four of bigotry.

But ignoring all of that what's surprised me about this book is how bad it is. The style is pedestrian and lazy, I've seen cotton reels more tense than this supposed thriller. I think I've written before that some bestsellers are badly written but the power of the story pulls it through. Not so here.

So then we have to ask why it is that if you ask people who've heard the name John Buchan they remember this novel and are very unlikely to know of any of the other stuff he wrote?

The answer, it occurred to me was in the all round (in the very literal sense) form of serial sex harasser/film director Alfred Hitchcock who made the book into a movie

Now let me say I've never seen the full film but I know from the bits I have seen already that it's better than the so called thriller that it was based on? How? Well there are two things I already know that make it better.

Firstly there are women in the film. In the novel there are, wait for it, no women at all. Indeed I can only recall one female character actually being mentioned in the entire book, and that was in passing. So any female readers expecting to pretend to be whatever character Madeleine Carroll played in the movie, you're going to be disappointed. And to the male readers out there, trust me when I say the lack of any women in this book doesn't improve it at all. So I would suggest the sexist counter mentioned earlier is dropped here through omission.

Secondly the climatic finale to the film, which I have seen but won't spoil for you, doesn't exist in the book either. The ending is in fact rather dull.

So before John Galsworthy and The Forsythe Saga or Michael Dobbs with House of Cards here is arguably the first case where the moving picture version was better than the bad book it was based on. But because it was so much better, it allowed the inferior original version to live on in the memory.

So a sexist/racist/anti Semite should thank a sex harasser. Such is the world we live in.

Until the next time.

A Busy Day:Assisted By Leonid and Matthew

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

There are days. And yesterday was one of them where you have things one after the other so that you're well just busy.

But before I left the apartment in the morning finished reading Operation Eichmann by Zvi Anaroni and Wilhelm Dietl. It was an interesting read and it reminds you that whatever you may think of the current Israeli government (and for the record I'm against it) Israelis have good reason to be cautious in their dealings with others.

So first then Cardiff. To the garage that will sort out the damage done to my car in the shunt. Tuesday was just a man taking pictures and examining it. Apparently the bumper and " impact bar" needs to be repaired. It's set for Thursday. Will collect the courtesy car then too.

Whilst I was waiting started to read the next book on the list. The Crushed Flower and other stories by the Russian writer Leonid Andreyev. Earlier this year I chatted about his novel The Seven Who Were Hanged, which I liked.

Once that was done off to Bridgend to get lectured on dental hygiene by someone old enough to be my granddaughter. Still my teeth are still there....and they're mine. Of course had to wait before I went in. So again had Leonid's book to distract me from the dental diatribe to come.

Afterwards had some time before work. Which meant lunch....and chips. But had about forty minutes left afterwards to read and as it turned out finish Leonid's work.

In truth some of the stories I liked,some I didn't. But the  stand out tale was undoubtedly the title story. It was quite simply quietly stunning

So work. And during breaks started to read the next book.Fantasy Life by Matthew Berry. A quick tale. When I was unemployed years ago and depressed. I discovered the fascinating and very American sports podcasts by the ESPN channel. I enjoyed most of them immensely, but my favourite was the Fantasy (American)  football which involved him, Nate Ravitz, Stephania  Bell and their producer Podvader.

I've chatted about Fantasy Sports before in this blog. But have never tried American football. And yet I loved it. So when this biography come stories of people's experiences with fantasy sports I had to buy it.

Funny thing was. I started reading this book years ago. In Disneyland Paris in fact. But I'd electronically put it down and for some reason forgot about  it....until now. Well with the caveat that you need to be interested in Fantasy Sports I can recommend this book heartily. It's simply about an ordinary guy with an extraordinary passion and how it affected his life as well as the way Fantasy sports has affected other people's lives as well.

The next tome on the eBook pile turns out to be The Thirty Nine Steps by John Buchan. I was toying with whether or not to read this because of my dislike of the racism in Prester John. I decided to read it out of curiosity given that it is the author's best known book. It's a decision I already regret.

Until the next time.

The Dilemma For The Left Wing Reader Regarding The N Word:Should I Stay Or Should I Go?

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Regular readers will remember that I chatted about the American school that banned Harper Lee's classic novel To Kill A Mockingbird from their exam board lists because some people felt uncomfortable with the use of the N word. This action inspired me to go to the library and read this book (so thanks for that).

On reading it confirmed my view that with regard to the N word context is what you judge a novel on. Here it was perfectly acceptable especially when you read the passage when Atticus Finch condemns it.

But now I find myself in a dilemma regarding the current book I'm reading on the Kindle: Thomas Wolfe's novel You Can't Go Home Again (published posthumously in 1940). I'm about a quarter of the way through and the N word has been used twice. Afro Americans in this book a poor lower order who work in menial jobs. Susceptible/gullible to the avarice of the (white) guy who's apparently the lead villain.

Nothing suggests,aside from the very last point, that the writer disapproves. It's just normal American small town life.

And all of this, apart from giving an idea as to how bad the bad guy is has apparently nothing to do with the plot.

I remember reading John Buchan's book Prester John. Which as I've said before was even allowing for the attitudes of the time stunningly racist. I kept reading it thinking, "well this is going to change" but I was wrong.

So I'm inclined to stop reading this novel.

But....

As I've said I'm about a quarter of the way through the book. What if something changes? What if Mr Wolfe shows that he doesn't approve of the racist society as it was then? If that turns out to be the case then it makes me look like an idiot.

And that's the dilemma. Remember unlike Harper Lee's classic novel I've no idea what to expect from this book. Thomas Wolfe is a new writer to me. So should I stay or should I go?

For the moment I'm staying. I feel uncomfortable about that but the thought of a plot change (unlikely I think but don't know for certain) to undermine the impression currently given makes me give Mr Wolfe the benefit of the doubt.

It's a big doubt though.

Until the next time.

Maesteg,It's Indoor Market And Books In The Early Morning

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

For reasons I won't bore you with by explaining yesterday (Monday) I took daughter to school. As it's a Welsh language school it's half an hour from where we live near Maesteg and thought as I was near there might as well save some time by doing the odd bit of grocery shopping in the town rather than having to go to Bridgend later.

The view from a Maesteg car park as at 8:45am on a Monday morning

I had decided not only to go do this shopping but also to visit Maesteg Indoor Market which as I've explained in an earlier post is threatened after one hundred and thirty five years of loyal service to the community is threatened with closure by the local Labour, yes Labour council.

Most of the market wasn't yet open yet. But the book stall was left open for all to look at.

So I did

My Penguin book budget was £4.15. In the event I bought four books. The first wasn't a Penguin paperback and on the surface seems like an odd choice for me to pick.

Caitlin Moran - How To Be A Woman

I had seen on the television chatting about her recent book at the Hay-On-Wye literary festival around May/June time and was impressed. Had been looking for her books in the local Bridgend local libraries but to no avail. So was pleased to see this. Even though as a fifty two year old man it seems like the last thing I should read.

Then I saw two gold spined paperbacks of the German writer Gunter Grass. They were:

Gunter Grass - From The Diary Of A Snail

Gunter Grass - Dog Years

I haven't read a Gunter Grass book before and was excited to have got these. Did get The Tin Drum once but for some reason mislaid it. These things happen.

The last book I bought was this.

1130 - John Buchan - The Thirty-Nine Steps

Now to be honest I'm in two minds about this. The collector in me is pleased to have got a pre ISBN edition of his most famous book, and I won't deny it.

But.....

I remember once on Twitter that John Buchan was accused of being a bad writer who got lucky with The 39 Steps. Based on another book of his that I read can only for the moment agree. It was called Prestor John. Not only was it awful but even taking into account the attitudes of the time it was written it was stunningly racist. I read it with my left wing sensibilities and thought "something will happen to make this right". But I was incorrect. It was of the far right but completely, totally wrong.

The four books together cost £2. I left the money on the counter and walked away. Only then did a lady working in the local café tell me that she'd look after it for the stallholder. The stalls in Maesteg indoor market working together for the general good. A sort of Socialist attitude against the heartless  Labour Council. A microcosm of how the world has gone mad.

Until the next time.